1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a label supporting means which can support many kinds of labels such as brand marks, tags, information tags about materials of goods, explanations on how to use or treat goods, price tags or the like, and is capable of being attached to many kinds of goods to be sold in shops.
2. Description of the Related Art
One embodiment of a conventional fastener is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,183, and as shown in attached FIGS. 1 and 2, it is disclosed that the fastener 10 comprises a long filament portion. Additionally, 3 as an intermediate portion, a socket portion 2 and an inserting part 4 are provided on each of the ends of the filament portion 3. It is also disclosed that each of the abovementioned portions are integrally formed into one piece so as to form a fastener 10.
This kind of fastener 10 can be used by inserting the inserting portion 4 into the aperture 11 formed in the socket portion 2 in one direction, which anchors it to the socket 2 very tightly.
Note that when the inserting portion 4 is inserted into the aperture 11 of the socket 2, a tongue portion 5 (which is provided at a top end portion of the inserting portion 4 and has flexibility and suitable resilience) is engaged in a stopper portion 12 provided inside the aperture 11 of the socket portion 2.
A tag or label 20 indicating the quality, price or the like is carried by the above-mentioned filament portion 3, which can be attached to any kind of goods.
When a tag, a label or the like 20 is attached to an article by using such fastener, a worker or an operator may attempt to pick up at least one fasteners 10 from a bundle of the fasteners in which a plurality of the fastener as described in FIG. 1 are randomly grouped, as shown in FIG. 4, by grasping the inserting part thereof with his or her finger tip portion. However, due to the heavily entangled condition among the filaments 3 and the socket portions 2 thereof, it is very difficult for the operator to single a specific fastener from the bundle thereof.
Note that the above-mentioned entanglement is because the filament portion is connected to the socket portion with approximately a right angle with respect to a center axis of the aperture of the socket portion.
Further, when the operator intends to insert the inserting part thereof into an aperture formed in the socket portion, after the inserting part carrying the label or tag has passed through an aperture or a hole or suitable connecting portion provided on a good, the operator will usually grasp the socket portion thereof with the tips of his fingers, and support it between his finger tips as shown in FIG. 3.
However, since the socket portion usually has a very tiny body, per se, and thus the socket portion is usually kept between the finger tip portions of the operator so that at least a part of each of the end portions of the aperture of the socket portion are necessarily sealed by the finger surface of the operator, which reduces the effective size of the aperature, and makes insertion difficult. Accordingly, the efficiency of the label attaching operation is reduced.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to improve the abovementioned drawbacks as raised in the conventional fastener to thereby provide a new fastener means in which the inserting part thereof can easily be inserted into the aperture or a through hole provided inside the socket portion, and also to provide a new fastener means with which a desired fastener means can be easily singled out from a bundle thereof without generating any entanglement formed among the fasteners.